April 1, 2014 — This question is not “Should I use Social Media on my WordPress site?” the question is “What Social Media tools should I use on my WordPress Web site.”

March 30, 2014 — Weaving JavaScript into WordPress covers the basic functions and hooks, and good practices for including JavaScript into themes and plugins. This includes when and how to include local scripts into one’s code, being aware of existing libraries that are already available, how to load non-local scripts and remove existing scripts, how to include javascript in the admin, and for the advanced user how to use localize script to make data from PHP available in javascript.

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March 30, 2014 — Do you develop themes for WordPress? This presentation covers the options that are available and why you might want to choose one over the other. While advanced theme developers have their workflows that work for them it’s good to challenge what they know and to see how they can improve and grow. For the beginning theme developer, knowing some of the pitfalls out of the gate can help guide them in the right direction and provide a better overall experience in developing for WordPress.

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March 29, 2014 — Your plugin is broken; do you know why? This session shows some simple principles to help you integrate unit testing in your plugins that will help you find and eliminate bugs before they happen.

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March 29, 2014 — The Twenty Thirteen theme uses something called “Masonry” to realign footer widgets when you re-size the browser window. Masonry is now part of the WordPress core download, and it can be activated and used in WordPress themes and plugins with just a few lines of code and some clear theme organization. This presentation walks theme and plugin developers through how to activate Masonry, how to make it work on a front page layout, and how to activate dazzling animation options included in the script.

March 27, 2014 — This session is geared toward beginners who are in the early stages of setting up their WordPress-powered site. The session is about how I have used WordPress to start my own news startup EasternIowaNews.com and used WordPress at United Way of East Central Iowa, a site that has won a national Content Management Association Spotlight Award in the WordPress category in 2012/13.

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March 20, 2014 — We all know that web sites and applications with a great user experience produce better results, keep customers happy, and are a joy to interact with. But are you applying what you know about user experience to your own business? Every time you answer the phone, send an email, invoice a client, attend a meeting, or propose a contract, you’re defining the user experience of your business. Make those decisions with intent and purpose, not by default.

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March 19, 2014 — WordPress isn’t just about slapping some cool plugins on your site; you have to know your audience, understand how THEY interact, and be willing to listen to them. Of course, there are some awesome plugins to help you handle the masses, and I’ll talk about those too, but let’s get down and dirty and look at the evidence, trace the paths, and find out who’s killing your site. It may be you.

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March 19, 2014 — How many times have you purchased a theme based on the “live demonstration” or “live preview”, only to be let down once you find out that the theme was built in a totally crazy way? How many times have you had to edit every page of your website due to installing a new theme and finding out that the old theme used short codes and this new theme has no short codes at all?
This presentation shows you that your theme can do all of the cool tricks that any other theme can do.

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March 18, 2014 — This session is for anyone who charges for their services. This session discusses how to properly create a budget for a WordPress project and sell it to your client. The discussion includes what factors should be considered when bidding and how to ensure that you make a profit. It also discusses project based pricing vs. hourly pricing and when it is appropriate to use either method. Other topics include scope increases, project maintenance and most importantly, what to do when you don’t win a bid.